With that in mind, the report goes on to suggest that it could have a negative impact on Arsenal’s hopes of prising Ceballos away from the Bernabeu on a season-long loan deal as Zinedine Zidane may well need him to help fill that void.

However, The Sun have since reported that the Gunners have been given the green light to go ahead with landing the classy Spaniard, while they specifically note that both Ceballos and defender Saliba could arrive in a double announcement on Thursday.

That will be a huge boost for Unai Emery, albeit it’s added by the Sun that Saliba will return to Saint Etienne on loan for a season and so he won’t be an immediate reinforcement. That in turn will be a slight disappointment given Arsenal’s defence was so porous last year, as they conceded 51 goals in 38 Premier League games.

Nevertheless, they will be buoyed by the expected arrival of Ceballos to add technical quality and creativity in midfield, as he’ll look to form a key partnership with the likes of Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka in that department to give Arsenal the platform to go out and win games.

However, there is a downside to it of course, as given it’s merely a loan deal, it isn’t a long-term fix and so Emery will have to hope that Ceballos can help them achieve their objectives this season to strengthen their position moving forward.